Syrians mourn loss of Damascus heritage sites after fire in 800-year-old Souk Sarouja

Al-Azm Palace and several neighboring homes, stores, and workshops along Al-Thawra Street were damaged. (Supplied)
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Updated 20 July 2023
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Syrians mourn loss of Damascus heritage sites after fire in 800-year-old Souk Sarouja

  • Precious historical buildings, including the Palace of Abdul Rahman Pasha Al-Yusuf, were lost in the July 16 fire
  • Sarouja is a much beloved district that was center stage in Syria’s Ottoman past and early independence

LONDON: On July 16, the people of Damascus awoke to the shocking news that fire had torn through the city’s historical district overnight, destroying the palace of Abdulrahman Pasha Al-Yusuf in the Old City’s Souk Sarouja.

The blaze had started in a house adjacent to the palace at around 3 a.m. local time before quickly spreading, according to state media agency SANA. Local reports suggested it was sparked by an electrical fault, but social media users have speculated it may have been arson.

The fire also partially damaged Al-Azm Palace, which contains the Center for Historical Documents, and swept through several neighboring homes, stores, and workshops along nearby Al-Thawra Street.

It took firefighters more than four hours to bring the blaze under control. In that time, immense damage had been caused to the Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world’s oldest inhabited cities.




Recent fires in the Old City of Damascus, a UNESCO World Heritage site, have caused irrevocable damage. (Supplied)

For a city as ancient as Damascus, “Souk Sarouja is relatively new,” Sami Moubayed, a Damascus-based historian, writer, and former visiting scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, told Arab News.

The neighborhood is approximately 800 years old and was built by the Mamluks to house soldiers.

Moubayed said: “By the mid-19th century, Sarouja grew to house some of Damascus’ finest homes.”

The district was known as Little Istanbul because some of the most senior officials from the Ottoman capital resided there and because its grandeur bore a striking resemblance to the city.

“During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it acquired its political significance because a handful of senior Arab officials at the Imperial Court in Istanbul established their palaces within its confines,” Moubayed added.

Among those prominent historical figures was Abdulrahman Pasha Al-Yusuf, the emir of Hajj, who was also the deputy head of the Pan-Syrian Congress before becoming president of the Shoura Council. It was Al-Yusuf’s home that was destroyed in the July 16 fire.




The fire also partially damaged Al-Azm Palace, which contains the Center for Historical Documents, and swept through several neighboring homes, stores, and workshops along nearby Al-Thawra Street. (Supplied)

“(Al-Yusuf’s house) lost its political significance following his assassination in 1920, but its cultural and social relevance remained,” Moubayed said.

Another notable figure in the history of Damascus was Muhammad Fawzi Pasha Al-Azm, father of Khalid Al-Azm, whose house was adjacent to Yusuf’s and which was partially damaged in the blaze.

“Al-Azm was named Ottoman minister of awqaf in 1912 but, prior to this, he was head of the Damascus municipality, and later was elected president of the Syrian National Congress, Syria’s first post-Ottoman parliament.

“After Muhammad Fawzi Pasha Al-Azm passed away in 1919, his son Khalid, who formed five governments in the modern history of Syria, continued to live in the palace,” Moubayed added.

Also among Sarouja’s historically notable inhabitants was Ahmad Izzat Pasha Al-Abid, second secretary and confidant of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II.

Moubayed said: “The house maintained its political relevance during the life of his son Muhammad Ali Al-Abid, who upon becoming the Syrian Republic’s first president in 1932, chose to rule from Sarouja for a brief period. He then moved to Al-Abid Palace in the Muhajirin district.”

Sarouja was fortunate to survive previous disasters.

“In 1945, Sarouja was impacted by France’s bombardment of Damascus. On May 29, 1945, Jamil Mardam Bey, who was (Syria’s) foreign minister and acting premier, was at government headquarters when the French aggression reached its vicinity.

“He fled with other officials from Zukak Ramy at sunset and sought refuge in Khalid Al-Azm’s house in Sarouja as there was an arrest warrant against them. This same house was partially damaged on Sunday.

“The house in 1945 provided sanctuary for over 100 people. When the French found out that Mardam Bey was in Al-Azm’s house, they began to heavily bomb Sarouja,” Moubayed added.

Although Sarouja has bounced back before, the July 16 fire damage was extensive and will leave a lasting scar, both on the district and its residents.

Loujein Haj Youssef, a Paris-based journalist, said the sight of Sarouja engulfed in flames brought tears to her eyes. She grew up and spent her early adulthood in Damascus and noted that the scale of the destruction was heartbreaking.

“I thought Damascus was an eternal city. Never have I thought, for instance, to take a picture in Khalid Al-Azm’s palace, an exquisite architectural masterpiece, although I regularly spent a lot of time there.




Al-Yusuf Palace before the fire. (Supplied)

“Our recent memory of Damascus is lost. One day, we will search our memory for pictures of the Old City but will only find that these have been replaced by images of ashes and bare cement walls,” Youssef added.

Marwah Morhly, a Damascene writer now residing in Turkiye, felt a part of her identity was lost to the flames.

She said: “Not only did the fire burn my city’s history, but it also burned our youth, the laughter that echoed in the ancient alleyways, and our early taste of freedom, when we first left the confines of school and university.

“Sarouja was a meeting place for lovers and politicians, laughter and tears, and the dreams of our youth. It is now a place that burns us on the inside, as if our hearts are not wearied enough by all the fires raging within.”

Despite the affection that many Syrians have for the district, it has long been neglected. In 2013, UNESCO placed the Ancient City of Damascus, which incorporates Sarouja, on its list of World Heritage in Danger.




Al-Yusuf’s house lost its political significance following his assassination in 1920, but its cultural and social relevance remained, said Sami Moubayed, a Damascus-based historian and writer. (Supplied)

Moubayed said: “Sarouja district declined, as did the rest of the Old City, because, with the onset of French rule, many Damascene families moved to apartments.

“Districts with modern housing, such as Al-Shuhadaa, Al-Abid, and Shaalan, emerged, and people abandoned old houses for many reasons, including difficult access and maintenance and the inconvenience of having several families live in one place.

“Women also progressed and started demanding to have residences of their own. People started owning cars, and the (narrow) alleyways are difficult to navigate.”

Moubayed pointed out that there was little interest in restoring the city’s old houses until the 1990s, when work began to salvage and repurpose the Christian districts of Bab Touma and Bab Sharqi, where boutique hotels and restaurants have sprung up.




It took firefighters more than four hours to bring the blaze under control. (Supplied)

“Souk Sarouja, not receiving the same level of attention, gradually deteriorated into a run-down, lower-income area with small cafes, in contrast to other parts of the Old City, which are renowned as the upper crust, hosting prestigious hotels like Talisman and Beit Al-Mamlouka,” he added.

Unless the area gains the same level of interest, what remains of Sarouja’s historic buildings may soon be lost to time altogether.


UN launches probe into first international staff killed by unidentified strike in Rafah

Updated 15 May 2024
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UN launches probe into first international staff killed by unidentified strike in Rafah

  • Retired Indian army officer Waibhav Anil Kale was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was also injured in the attack

NEW DELHI: The United Nations has launched an investigation into an unidentified strike on a UN car in Rafah on Monday that killed its first international staff in Gaza since Oct. 7, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary General said.
The staff member, a retired Indian Army officer named Waibhav Anil Kale, was working with the UN Department of Safety and Security and was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was also injured in the attack.
Israel has been moving deeper into Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than a million people had sought shelter, and its forces pounded the enclave’s north on Tuesday in some of the fiercest attacks in months.
Israel’s international allies and aid groups have repeatedly warned against a ground incursion into Rafah, where many Palestinians fled, and Israel says four Hamas battalions are holed up. Israel says it must root out the remaining fighters.
In a statement on Monday after Kale’s death, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reiterated an “urgent appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for the release of all hostages,” saying the conflict in Gaza was continuing to take a heavy toll “not only on civilians, but also on humanitarian workers.”
Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed more than 35,000 people and driven most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people from their homes.
His deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Tuesday the UN has established a fact-finding panel to determine the responsibility for the attack.
“It’s very early in the investigation, and details of the incident are still being verified with the Israeli Defense Force,” he said.
There are 71 international UN staff members in Gaza currently, he said.
In its only comment on the matter yet, India’s mission to the UN confirmed Kale’s identity on Tuesday, saying it was “deeply saddened” by his loss.
Israel, which launched its Gaza operation after an attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas-led gunmen who killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to its tallies, has ordered civilians to evacuate parts of Rafah.
The main United Nations aid agency in Gaza, UNRWA estimates some 450,000 people have fled the city since May 6. More than a million civilians had sought refuge there.


Libya war crimes probe to advance next year: ICC prosecutor

An exterior view of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, March 31, 2021. (REUTERS)
Updated 15 May 2024
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Libya war crimes probe to advance next year: ICC prosecutor

  • The Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC in February 2011 following a violent crackdown on unprecedented protests against the regime of Muammar Qaddafi

UNITED NATIONS, United States: The International Criminal Court prosecutor probing war crimes committed in Libya since 2011 announced Monday his plans to complete the investigation phase by the end of 2025.
Presenting his regular report before the United Nations Security Council, Karim Khan said that “strong progress” had been made in the last 18 months, thanks in particular to better cooperation from Libyan authorities.
“Our work is moving forward with increased speed and with a focus on trying to deliver on the legitimate expectations of the council and of the people of Libya,” Khan said.
He added that in the last six months, his team had completed 18 missions in three areas of Libya, collecting more than 800 pieces of evidence including video and audio material.
Khan said he saw announcing a timeline to complete the investigation phase as a “landmark moment” in the case.
“Of course, it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to require cooperation, candor, a ‘can do’ attitude from my office but also from the authorities in Libya,” he added.
“The aim would be to give effect to arrest warrants and to have initial proceedings start before the court in relation to at least one warrant by the end of next year,” Khan said.
The Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC in February 2011 following a violent crackdown on unprecedented protests against the regime of Muammar Qaddafi.
So far, the investigation opened by the court in March 2011 has produced three cases related to crimes against humanity and war crimes, though some proceedings were abandoned after the death of suspects.
An arrest warrant remains in place for Seif Al-Islam Qaddafi, the son of the assassinated Libyan dictator who was killed by rebel forces in October 2011.
Libya has since been plagued by fighting, with power divided between a UN-recognized Tripoli government and a rival administration in the country’s east.
 

 

 


Palestinians rally at historic villages in northern Israel

Updated 15 May 2024
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Palestinians rally at historic villages in northern Israel

  • The descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently number about 1.4 million, around 20 percent of Israel’s population
  • Israel has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory

SHEFA-AMR: Thousands of people took part Tuesday in an annual march through the ruins of villages that Palestinians were expelled from during the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation.
Wrapped in keffiyeh scarves and waving Palestinian flags, men and women rallied through the abandoned villages of Al-Kassayer and Al-Husha — many holding signs with the names of dozens of other demolished villages their families were displaced from.
“Your Independence Day is our catastrophe,” reads the rallying slogan for the protest that took place as Israelis celebrated the 76th anniversary of the proclamation of the State of Israel.
The protest this year was taking place against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza, where fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has displaced the majority of the population, according to the United Nations.
Among those marching Tuesday was 88-year-old Abdul Rahman Al-Sabah.
He described how members of the Haganah, a Zionist paramilitary group, forced his family out of Al-Kassayer, near the northern city of Haifa, when he was a child.
They “blew up our village, Al-Kassayer, and the village of Al-Husha so that we would not return to them, and they planted mines,” he said, his eyes glistening with tears.
The family was displaced to the nearby town of Shefa-Amr.
“But we continued (going back), my mother and I, and groups from the village, because it was harvest season, and we wanted to live and eat,” he said.
“We had nothing, and whoever was caught by the Israelis was imprisoned.”
Palestinians remember this as the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, when around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes during the war that led to the creation of Israel.
The descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently number about 1.4 million, around 20 percent of Israel’s population.

Many of today’s Arab Israelis remain deeply connected to their historic land.
At Tuesday’s march, one man carried a small sign with “Lubya,” the name of what was once a Palestinian village near Tiberias.
Like many other Palestinian villages, Al-Husha and Al-Kassayer witnessed fierce battles in mid-April 1948, according to historians of the Haganah, among the Jewish armed groups that formed the core of what became the Israeli military.
Today, the kibbutz communities of Osha, Ramat Yohanan and Kfar Hamakabi can be found on parts of land that once housed the two villages.
“During the attack on our village Al-Husha, my father took my mother, and they rode a horse to the city of Shefa-Amr,” said Musa Al-Saghir, 75, whose village had been largely made up of people who immigrated from Algeria in the 1880s.
“When they returned to see the house, the Haganah forces had blown up the village and its houses,” said the activist from a group advocating for the right of return for displaced Arabs.
Naila Awad, 50, from the village of Reineh near Nazareth, explained that the activists were demanding both the return of displaced people to their demolished villages within Israel, as well as the return of the millions of Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank, Gaza and other countries.
“No matter how much you try to break us and arrest us, we will remain on our lands,” she insisted.
 

 


Egypt rejects Israel’s denial of role in Gaza aid crisis

Updated 15 May 2024
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Egypt rejects Israel’s denial of role in Gaza aid crisis

  • Sameh Shoukry: “Egypt affirms its categorical rejection of the policy of distorting the facts and disavowing responsibility followed by the Israeli side”

CAIRO: Egypt’s foreign minister on Tuesday accused Israel of denying responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza after his Israeli counterpart said Egypt was not allowing aid into the war-torn territory.
Israeli troops on May 7 said they took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing to Egypt as part of efforts to root out Hamas militants in the east of Rafah city.
The move defied international opposition and shut one of the main humanitarian entry points into famine-threatened Gaza. Since then, Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel aid access through the Rafah crossing.
Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, said in a statement that “Egypt affirms its categorical rejection of the policy of distorting the facts and disavowing responsibility followed by the Israeli side.”
In a tweet on social media platform X, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had said, “Yesterday, I spoke with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock about the need to persuade Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing to allow the continued delivery of international humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Katz added that “the key to preventing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now in the hands of our Egyptian friends.”
Shoukry, whose country has tried to mediate a truce in the Israel-Hamas war, responded that “Israel is solely responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe that the Palestinians are currently facing in the Gaza Strip.”
He added that Israeli control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing and its military operations exposes “aid workers and truck drivers to imminent dangers,” referencing trucks awaiting entry to Gaza.
This, he said, “is the main reason for the inability to bring aid through the crossing.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres said he is “appalled” by Israel’s military escalation in Rafah, a spokesman said.
Guterres’ spokesman Farhan Haq said “these developments are further impeding humanitarian access and worsening an already dire situation,” while also criticizing Hamas for “firing rockets indiscriminately.”
Since Israeli troops moved into eastern Rafah, the aid crossing point from Egypt remains closed and nearby Kerem Shalom crossing lacks “safe and logistically viable access,” a UN report said late on Monday.


Daesh claims attack on army post in northern Iraq

Updated 15 May 2024
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Daesh claims attack on army post in northern Iraq

  • Daesh said in a statement on Telegram it had targeted the barracks with machine guns and grenades

BAGHDAD: Daesh claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack on Monday targeting an army post in northern Iraq which security sources said had killed a commanding officer and four soldiers.
The attack took place between Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, a rural area that remains a hotbed of activity for militant cells years after Iraq declared final victory over the extremist group in 2017.
Security forces repelled the attack, the defense ministry said on Monday in a statement mourning the loss of a colonel and a number of others from the regiment. The security sources said five others had also been wounded.
Daesh said in a statement on Telegram it had targeted the barracks with machine guns and grenades.
Iraq has seen relative security stability in recent years after the chaos of the 2003-US-led invasion and years of bloody sectarian conflict that followed.